Flogging Molly at Northern Lights, 2/20/11

CLIFTON PARK – With its strong and proud Irish heritage, the Capital Region doesn’t really celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with a one-day blow-out – or even a weekend-long celebration. No, here in the Capital Region, St. Patrick’s Day is really a holiday season – like Christmas.

So even though March 17 is still nearly a month away, the Irish musical festivities have already kicked into high gear – first with the acoustic sounds of the Chieftains at the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall on Thursday and then again on Sunday with the decidedly more rocking, high-powered blast of Flogging Molly at Northern Lights.

Led by vocalist-guitarist Dave King – who was a member of the ’70s hair-metal band Fastway in what seems to be another lifetime ago – Flogging Molly whipped up more than 1,000 fans into a genuine frenzy on Sunday. They opened the show with the title track of the their upcoming album, “Speed of Darkness,” but it didn’t take the sold-out crowd long to catch on. They were leaping about by the second chorus, and as soon as the band launched into their second number, ”The Likes of You Again,” the crowd-surfing began, and it didn’t really let up til the band said its final farewell to the crowd more than an hour and a half later.

Yes, you could call Flogging Molly’s music “Celtic punk,” but that shorthand just doesn’t seem big enough to encompass the range of sound and styles that the California-based septet pumped out with relentless passion. They offered a handful of new tunes from the upcoming album, and they all hit the mark – most notably “Saints and Sinners,” which balanced the go-for-the-throat energy and Celtic tradition with a nifty mid-song Appalachian breakdown featuring Robert Schmidt on banjo.

But Flogging Molly also dished up plenty of crowd-pleasing catalog favorites, as well, including the rave-up “Devil’s Dance Floor” (featuring some nimble pennywhistle playing by fiddler Bridget Regan), the rousing “Drunken Lullabies” (most assuredly not a lullabye), the frantic, hot-wired “The Likes of You Again” (taken at a break-neck tempo), “Black Friday Rule” (featuring a molten buzz-saw solo from guitarist Dennis Casey) and, of course, “If I Ever Leave This World Alive” (the most celebratory of funeral songs).

It was a party from start to finish, and the crowd didn’t need any encouragement to raise their glasses in a toast, pump their fists in the air or heartily sing along with nearly every tune.

San Diego’s the Drowning Men served up a rousing opening set, highlighted by Nato Bardeen’s endearing bellow and the pub sing-along “Rita.” And in the middle slot was Moneybrother, a smart six-piece band led by guitarist-vocalist Anders Wendlin who roared through a 45-minute set of Springsteen-like tunes built around classic soul-revue arrangements.

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Flogging Molly

With Moneybrother and the Drowning Men

When: 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 20

Where: Northern Lights, Route 146, Clifton Park

Musical highlights: “Saints and Sinners,” “Rebels of the Sacred Heart” and “Float”